Education Commons^™

Latina/O First Generation College Students And College Adjustment: An Examination Of Family Support Processes, Patricia R. Cerda-Lizarraga

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

First generation Latina/o college students are at a higher risk for not completing their college degrees when compared to other ethnic minorities due to added barriers and challenges of being the first to go to college. Researchers reported that poor college adjustment is one of the factors contributing to the lack of college completion among Latina/o college students. A few studies exist on the role that family support has on the college adjustment of Latina/o students and these yielded mixed findings. The central role of the family among Latina/o students and their support during the college adjustment period merits attention. …

How A Healthy Population Acquires Nutrition And Exercise Information: A Mixed Methods Study, Sally J. Hillis

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Faced with an overwhelming amount of available sources and different perspectives, researchers in the field of Nutrition and Health Sciences continually strive to identify key factors that shape a healthy lifestyle. Employing an exploratory sequential mixed methods design, phase one of this research utilized a constructivist grounded theory approach to develop a model explaining the process by which healthy individuals acquire nutrition and exercise information. Interested is studying a population identified by good nutrition and daily exercise, the researcher set the participant criteria to include daily consumption of 2-3 balanced meals, 45-60 minutes daily moderate-intensity exercise, and a normal BMI. …

Exploring Deployment And Resilience Through The Experiences Of Army National Guard Youth, Kerrie Joy Rosheim

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The Global War on Terror utilized Army National Guard soldiers at unprecedented rates, drastically changing their reserve role and the lifestyle of their families. This qualitative study explored what the adolescent children of Army National Guard soldiers experienced during the deployment of a parent and how they conceptualized and demonstrated resilience. Through individual interviews with nine participants, who collectively have experienced over 17 years of deployment during adolescence, and email survey results of their primary caregivers, the following three themes emerged to capture the essence of deployment for Army National Guard youth. Deployment can be viewed as “a mixed bag” …

The Impact Of Sexual Violence On Intimate Relationship Dynamics: A Grounded Theory Study, Nicole M. Lozano

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study intended to develop a theory that explains the relationship dynamics of opposite-sex couples in which the female partner has been sexually victimized as an adult outside of the couple relationship. Four couples participated in the study sharing their experiences of disclosing the assault, communicating about the assault, physical intimacy, and salience of the assault to the relationship. Using a constructivist grounded theory approach the model emerged from the data. Overall, the women decided to disclose because they felt secure in their current intimate relationship. Disclosure happened for one of two reasons: (a) either to test the relationship and …

Tacit Cultural Knowledge: An Instrumental Qualitative Case Study Of Mixed Methods Research In South Africa, Debra Rena Miller

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Notwithstanding the dramatic expansion of mixed methods research, research methodologies, methods, and findings are culturally situated. Problematically, studies conducted outside the global north often embrace canonical methodologies aimed at understanding concepts more explicit than tacit. Learning about the needs of researchers and participants in South Africa may bring to light taken-for-granted assumptions in Anglo-American orientations of mixed methods. Hence, the purpose of this study is to explore aspects of tacit cultural knowledge that contextualize mixed methods research in South Africa.

In-person interviews among South African professors as well as a corpus of books, sections, journal articles, and theses informed the …

A Study Of Life Skills From Traditional And Afterschool 4-H Participants, Julia M. Kreikemeier

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Cooperative Extension has been serving youth and their families for over one hundred years. The total impact of this service has been measured on several occasions by many researchers, most notably in the research of youth development by Dr. Richard Learner; however, his research only took into account those who participated in traditional 4-H clubs. The purpose of this quantitative study was designed to examine which life skills youth participants in traditional and afterschool 4-H programs reported. Quantitative methodology was used to collect post-program survey data of youth participants. Qualitative informal interviews were conducted of Extension Educators and afterschool 4-H …

A Comparison Of Population-Averaged And Cluster-Specific Approaches In The Context Of Unequal Probabilities Of Selection, Natalie A. Koziol

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Sampling designs of large-scale, federally funded studies are typically complex, involving multiple design features (e.g., clustering, unequal probabilities of selection). Researchers must account for these features in order to obtain unbiased point estimators and make valid inferences about population parameters. Single-level (i.e., population-averaged) and multilevel (i.e., cluster-specific) methods provide two alternatives for modeling clustered data. Single-level methods rely on the use of adjusted variance estimators to account for dependency due to clustering, whereas multilevel methods incorporate the dependency into the specification of the model.

Although the literature comparing single-level and multilevel approaches is vast, comparisons have been limited to the …

Conjoint Behavioral Consultation Via Distance Delivery (Cbc-D): An Evaluation Of Efficacy And Acceptability, Michael J. Coutts

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Despite greater prevalence rates of child mental health and behavior problems, rural areas are often overlooked by researchers in favor of urban areas that provide larger, more diverse samples. However, rural children’s problems manifest differently across home and school than what is seen in urban and suburban contexts. Conjoint behavioral consultation (CBC; Sheridan & Kratochwill, 2008) is an evidence-based family-school partnership intervention wherein families and schools collaborate with a consultant to address child concerns. In its traditional format, the time specialized nature of delivering CBC and time and travel commitments needed by participants limits the feasibility of CBC as an …